MCG looking to set up parking lots in vacant plots across city

The Municipal Corporation of Gurugram (MCG) is working towards adopting a new parking policy recently approved by the urban local bodies (ULB) ministry. The policy allows use of vacant plots for setting up temporary parking lots.

On Thursday ULB minister Kavita Jain announced that the state government had issued a notification on March 8 permitting municipal bodies across the state to use vacant plots as temporary parking lots in a bid to ‘avoid unauthorised parking on roads’.

The move assumes significance as, apart from certain areas around the Mall Mile and the Golf Course Road, unauthorised parking remains a major hassle across the city.

“We are inviting people to come forward and offer their plots for setting up temporary parking lots. The land use will be changed so that these plots could be used a temporary parking spaces,” Sudhir Singh Chauhan, senior town planner, MCG, said.

Chauhan said that while a landowner will not be paid any sum by the MCG for leasing his or her land, he/she will be free to keep the money raised by levying a fee on people availing of the parking facility.

“The fee to be charged for parking on such vacant plots is in the process of being finalised,” Chauhan said.

For residents who face daily hassles when it comes to finding a parking space, the move to enable vacant plots for parking offers relief.

“Since a senior minister in the government announced the new parking policy, there is high possibility of it being introduced and enforced in the city. It (enabling vacant plots to be used as temporary parking lots) will benefit not only the commuters but the landowners as well,” Ravish Malik, a resident of Sushant Lok Phase 1, said.

The MCG had proposed a similar policy in January 2016 in a bid to put an end to perennial parking woes in the city. However, it didn’t get approval from the ULB ministry at the time.

Read I MCG looks for sites to set up multi-level parking lot

In another announcement on Thursday, Jain said that the MCG has also identified three locations for constructing multilevel parking lots. These are Kaman Sarai, Hidayatpur Chhawani and Sikanderpur Ghosi.

Previously, as part of a tie-up with owners of 26 malls and other commercial centres on Mehrauli-Gurgaon (MG) Road, Golf Course Road and Sohna Road, the MCG had decided to keep the basements of these facilities from the ambit of property tax if they offer free parking to residents there.